James Mottram has announced that he has withdrawn his nomination for the CUSU by-elections. He had been running for the CUSU Coordinator role, which deals mainly with the day to day running of CUSU. The only other candidate, Jemma Stewart, a Homerton undergraduate, now stands uncontested. CUSU's announcement of this development came in the form of a single line at the bottom of their election page, which stated that "James Mottram has withdrawn his nomination to run as CUSU Coordinator."

Mottram's withdrawal from the elections came after allegations that he sought to mislead students over his political leanings. James allegedly failed to mention his connections to the Cambridge University Conservative Association (CUCA) in his manifesto. As evidence of experience for the CUSU role he pointed out that he was a "former chairman and long serving committee member of a university-wide society," failing to specify that he was chair of CUCA last term. Mottram is also standing as the Tory candidate in this month’s city council elections for the Arbury ward.

Despite these allegations, Mottram's manifesto, which has since been removed from CUSU's elections webpage, stated that one of his priorities was "political neutrality". 

Mottram faced controversy after defending his decision to invite the former UKIP member Godfrey Bloom to speak at a CUCA meeting. Mottram claimed at the time that for him, Bloom's infamous "terms such as ‘Bongo-Bongoland’ and a joke in which he refers to his own supporters as ‘sluts’ indicate not retrograde views but rather an irreverent sense of humour". 

Speaking to Varsity, a member of Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC) commented that "his coyness about CUCA aside, James's manifesto is a classic attempt to paint conservatism as an apolitical idea. CUSU doesn't need to get rid of politics; it needs to get better at politics".

Mottram has refused to comment on the allegations.